THE SALT BOOK: Uganda - Volcanic Salt Lakes

In the far western reaches of Uganda, some 40 km from the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo lies the Queen Elizabeth National Park. In side the park are a series of volcanic crater containing salt lakes, salty because of an underground bed of rock salt left here when the area was a sea millions of years ago. Several of these lakes are too poisonous to mine but two have been used for centuries to collect salt from the black, mud laden waters.

Lake Katwe is the most well known and largest producer and Lake Bunyapaka is its smaller cousin. In extreme temerpatures the salt makers of this region work in the black toxic salt water to extract the salt, many permanently scared from the corrosive effect of the brine.

Once collected this salt, the majority of which is for animals, is exported as far as Egypt and Mozambique.